WOL at Vodafone
They started their first Circles more than two years ago. Just a few people. As time passed, a small team formed. They began organizing brown bag sessions, sharing their experience and forming more Circles.
No permission. Not much recognition. They persisted simply because they believed it was good for their colleagues and good for the company.
Still, they wanted to do more, to make a bigger difference.
“Moving to the next level”
It was Karin Waechtler who first reached out to me about a possible event early last year. Then Andreas Rechter, who’s leading Mindfulness@Vodafone, contacted me to learn more about WOL Mindfulness.
Soon, together with Mareike Buckmann, we began collaborating on how they could scale their efforts. They approached management with a proposal and the Head of Learning & Development, Tim Gens (who had already noticed their passion and persistence) offered support and funding. Thanks also to their CHRO Bettina Karsch for making it possible.
The first Mindfulness Circles are just completing, and we plan to spread WOL and WOL Mindfulness to 400+ more employees throughout 2021. After the first kickoff, Karin Waechtler celebrated on LinkedIn:
“Finally, after two years of grass roots movement, enthusiastically promoted at Vodafone by Mareike Buckmann, Ingo Schneider and Andreas Rechter amongst others, joined by some equally WOL-passionate Unitymedia colleagues last year, we are now moving to the next level.”
Their sponsor immediately commented:
Public comments like this make it safer for employees to Work Out Loud at work. They provide a clear signal that WOL is good for both the individual and the company, and the visible support from senior management reduces resistance that might be present otherwise.
Scale + Innovation
I love working with the Vodafone team. Karin, Mareike, and Andreas have not only come up with ways to spread WOL further, but also how to apply it to different groups.
Part of the plan this year, for example, is to explicitly target managers and adapt the method for them. And a completely new idea I’m excited about is to offer WOL to salespeople, helping them experience and cultivate “social selling” skills that have become important as in-person meetings continue to be disrupted.
How change happens
While some people debate whether change is best driven from the top or from the bottom, the team at Vodafone is doing the best of both. They’re appealing to the intrinsic motivation of employees and they are pairing their efforts with institutional support. That makes it convenient and safe for more people to take part and achieve a wider range of business goals.
You can do this too. Whether you’re just starting your first Circle in your company or want to “move to the next level” like Vodafone, you can choose the next step that’s right for you at workingoutloud.com or the new WOL Community.
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Update: In 2022, Vodafone expanded their WOL efforts and became the first company to use three WOL Methods: WOL Circles, WOL Mindfulness, and WOL for Teams.
